Full-On Hair (no heat required)

Check out the volume in my hair! Can you believe that this was done with no styling appliance whatsoever – not even a hairdryer?

Stylist Jonathan Connelly (see his work here) achieved this look by dampening my dry hair very slightly and adding quite a copious amount of Aveda’s now discontinued Sap Moss Conditioning Detangler (you could use another leave-in conditioner spray, such as Schwarzkopf’s Bonacure). He (and his lovely assistant) then spent ages – and I mean ages, massaging the roots of my hair, scrunching the lengths, twisting strands, and repeating the process over and over again until it was dry.

It was completely straight when they started, and by the time they had finished, it had actually formed proper curls! How’s that for a styling tip; not only does it not damage your hair, you get a two-hour-long head massage thrown in!

To recreate at home, Jonathan says that patience is key; it’s not a technique that can be rushed. What you can do to save your arms from falling off (because let’s face it, who is going to sit there scrunching their own hair for that long?) is wait until your hair is almost dry and divide your hair into two sections. Twist the sections around on themselves until they form ‘buns’ but leave out the bottom few inches so that you don’t get those tiny spirally curls. Fix with a large pin, and allow the hair to dry completely. You’ll have great texture when you release the twists, and you can continue tweaking from there, with much less work!

3 comments

Hey, i love your blog its so so useful, i tried all about lips after your recommendation which turned out to be a godsend seeing as i chew my lips to a crazy extreme

seeing as you always seem to be on a hunt for big curly hair, have you ever tried sleeping with your hair wrapped up into two buns when wet? one on top and one with the remaining hair? i always get massive curly hair when i wake it, it tends to be a little crazy so a bit of tweaking with some moose/ leave in conditioner always works SO well!